I have experienced exactly what you describe here. I am battling RSI for more than a decade, it has nearly cost me my career. Like you and many others, I have tried all sorts of things. I got the most improvement from:
- An ergonomic split keyboard, with a custom layout - An ergonomic chair and desk setup - Relearning to type from the home row - Using dozens of custom shortcuts to reduce awkward hand movements - Yoga and stretching - Building a more active lifestyle with total body movement as a focus - Improving diet to reduce inflammation
Despite all those interventions I still suffered debilitating hand and wrist pain, which eventually crept into my shoulder blades and back muscles. Doctors and physios were useless or clueless. One doctor refused to acknowledge that RSI exists. No amount of physiotherapy helped.
Using LLMs to do (almost) all of my coding tasks has reduced my RSI pain and stress by half or more. I feel so much better and healthier. I still have pain, and I still have to work hard to manage it, but I will never go back to writing everything by hand.
Thank you for sharing, and for reading. Wishing you good health.